The Cryptotrifecta Shell Game

Cryptocurrency is the new Wild West. The opportunities for big gains, as well as big epic losses, is everyone for the taking. But I’m conservative with money and a saver by nature. I’m not good at picking short-term winners. I don’t have time and knowledge to do market and technical analysis. When it comes to investing, the best strategy that had worked for me is picking something that I believe in and go long with it through thick and thin.

For example, I jumped in the $TSLA bandwagon way before the Tesla Model S went to production. When I read Elon Musk’s “The Secret Master Plan” I got excited and bought into the vision of a future when electric cars and clean energy will dominate the transportation and energy industry. It was a long shot back then but it didn’t matter. I wanted to have a skin in the game and do what I can to contribute to that future. So I went in, eyes wide open, and braced myself for a long roller coaster ride. Fast forward to today, March 2017, Tesla has single-handedly disrupted the transportation industry. I’m one of the first thousands of people who reserved a Tesla Model 3. The Tesla Model 3 is the culmination of Master Plan 1.0. Next in the agenda is the disruption of the energy industry. As I’ve been saying, Tesla is an energy company disguised as a kickass car company. Master Plan 2.0 is on its way already.

It’s the same long-term view which got me into Bitcoin and blockchain technology in late 2013. I was relatively late to the Bitcoin party. But I was convinced that it’s all about the blockchain. So I went in anyway. Then the crash happened. But I never wavered and just held on to my few Bitcoins. During the Bitcoin winter a new blockchain technology called “Ethereum” was introduced. For me the concept was a no-brainer. So I jumped into the Ether presale. Fast forward to today, Ethereum is doing well despite the epic DAO fork. It’s only behind Bitcoin in market capitalization. And then there’s Dash. I was relatively late to its take off too. But I jumped in by tapping some of my Ether presale to secure me a Dash masternode. My cryptotrifecta is now complete. I’m now aiming for that moonshot. I’m ready to HODL like this is Sparta!

In the meantime, I’ve decided to join the fun of crypto trading game by setting aside one Bitcoin for gambling, er, trading. But instead of trading shitcoins and other pump and dump altcoins, I’ll trade between my cryptotrifecta (BTC, ETH, DASH) and play a “shell game” using the most beautiful crypto wallet on the planet — Exodus.io. What’s great about Exodus is that I can easily exchange cryptocurrency via ShapeShift without leaving the wallet. And so I’ve started a portfolio with 100% ETH. Whenever I feel that the price of BTC and/or DASH is about to skyrocket then I’ll exchange ETH to BTC or DASH or both, and vice-versa. Repeat and rinse. If I time it well (read: get lucky) then the value of my portfolio should continue to grow with every successful trade. But if I time it badly, then the value of my portfolio will keep shrinking. It would be interesting to see the value of my portfolio by end of the year.

My overall bet is that my cryptotrifecta hodling will have at least doubled by the end of the year — that ALL of them will be winners. So my “shell game” fund is virtually guaranteed to increase in value. But this is pure speculation and wishful thinking. In fact, I don’t advice people to get into crypto trading without them doing research and being prepared to lose everything they put in. I can afford to lose the money in my Exodus wallet. But I have no plans of losing them. Watch out Craig Grant. I’m gonna beat your portfolio real good, dawg! Lolwut?!

Meanwhile, there are Bitcoin fundamentalists/maximalists who think that the only legitimate cryptocurrency and long-term store of value is Bitcoin. That all other altcoins, including Ethereum and Dash, are “scams” just waiting to collapse, like AuroraCoin. Well, whotf knows? I remember the time when Bitcoin was called a “scam” and “Ponzi scheme” too. Some would even say the U.S. Dollar itself is a Ponzi scheme waiting to collapse like a giant house of cards. But one thing is for sure. Playing with cryptocurrencies is not for the faint-hearted.

Welcome to the greatest free market experiment ever. Enter the Wild West at your own peril.